- Dec 14, 2007
- 239
- 2
- 129
I'm thinking of starting a small hatchery operation.
Locally, on the island of Puerto Rico, there isn't much variety in poultry, and they favor only one type of chicken for laying and they use any chicken for meat. No matter where you go, you can't find good laying breeds, always sold out.
Also most chickens I encounter here are mutts, not hybrids, mutts. Free range chickens who have mated with whatever other type of chicken around generation after generation to the point where no one knows what they are. Most of the times people have chickens just to control insects and dispose of leftover rice and stuff.
People with the intent to raise solid meat chickens and dependable egg layers are SOL around here, so I was thinking I could fill the demand by breeding just a few reliable breeds, while occasionally taking eggs and meat for my family.
I was just hoping for a little help brainstorming on what I'd need to pull it off. So far this is what I've got.
a couple of roosters and a few hens of each breed, two decent coops, a passable brooder, possibly an incubator, a nice big run, a few nest boxes, and a big sack of feed.
is there anything I left out here?
a brief note on vaccination in Puerto Rico, my clientel is fickle and typically doesn't believe in any sort of animal rights. They wont fit the bill for vaccination, not do they care if they lose a few birds to disease, to many people here a chicken dying of disease is like a napkin blowing away in the wind. If anything, I'd just vaccinate the house birds, so I don't have my mamas and papas dying off on a whim.
Locally, on the island of Puerto Rico, there isn't much variety in poultry, and they favor only one type of chicken for laying and they use any chicken for meat. No matter where you go, you can't find good laying breeds, always sold out.
Also most chickens I encounter here are mutts, not hybrids, mutts. Free range chickens who have mated with whatever other type of chicken around generation after generation to the point where no one knows what they are. Most of the times people have chickens just to control insects and dispose of leftover rice and stuff.
People with the intent to raise solid meat chickens and dependable egg layers are SOL around here, so I was thinking I could fill the demand by breeding just a few reliable breeds, while occasionally taking eggs and meat for my family.
I was just hoping for a little help brainstorming on what I'd need to pull it off. So far this is what I've got.
a couple of roosters and a few hens of each breed, two decent coops, a passable brooder, possibly an incubator, a nice big run, a few nest boxes, and a big sack of feed.
is there anything I left out here?
a brief note on vaccination in Puerto Rico, my clientel is fickle and typically doesn't believe in any sort of animal rights. They wont fit the bill for vaccination, not do they care if they lose a few birds to disease, to many people here a chicken dying of disease is like a napkin blowing away in the wind. If anything, I'd just vaccinate the house birds, so I don't have my mamas and papas dying off on a whim.
